Отрывок из книги
W. E. Johns
Published by Good Press, 2021
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Biggles looked nonplussed, but he nodded. ‘Very well,’ he said. ‘I gather there is something you want to tell me. Here, have some more brandy; it may help you.’
The old man drank the spirit gratefully, and it brought a faint flush into his sunken cheeks. ‘Yes; listen carefully,’ he said. ‘I am a Pole. I was a scientist working for the government in Warsaw. When the Germans marched into Poland I was on the point of concluding important experiments with metal alloys for aircraft—experiments that might well revolutionize the whole business of metal aircraft construction. Rather than destroy the fruits of seven years of labour, I put all my papers in a portfolio, and sought to escape so that I could give them to the Allies. But then it was hard to get out of my unhappy Poland. To make matters more difficult, the Germans knew all about me and my work, and when they found that I had gone they pursued me; they hunted for me everywhere. All frontiers were closed. There was only one way I could get out—by air. Our pilots were flying to neutral countries to save their machines. I found one willing to help me, and we fled to Russia, only to find that the Russians, too, had marched against us. We had only a little petrol left, so we tried to get to Finland. But the German Secret Service learned of my escape by aeroplane and traced it to Russia; they knew the number of the machine, and we had no means of painting it over. German pursuit ’planes flew over Russia to catch us, and they were close enough to shoot at us when we flew into a blizzard near Lake Ladoga. I had been hit by a bullet, and, although I did not know it, so had my pilot; but he flew on until the petrol gave out. Where we came down I don’t know, for we had been lost in the blizzard, but we crashed into the side of a frozen lake, which must be one of the smaller lakes near Lake Ladoga.’
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